Bangladesh police arrest weapon suppliers of Dhaka cafe attack

An upscale cafe in Dhaka day that witnessed a bloody siege ended with the death of 20 foreign hostages.
(AFP File Photo)

Bangladesh Police today arrested four ‘weapon suppliers’ who smuggled from India arms and materials used in the country’s worst terror attack at a cafe here that claimed 22 lives including of an Indian girl in July.

“Our counter-terrorism unit arrested them from Mirpur area last night... we are now interrogating them in our custody after obtaining a three-day remand order from a court,” police spokesman Masudur Rahman said.

The four are believed to have supplied grenade detonators, gel and weapons smuggled from India used in the neo-JMB attacks across the country, he said.

The development came more than a week after police said they succeeded in tracing the source of the not-so-modern weaponry used by terrorists while they all were operatives of neo-JMB, which is said to be ideologically linked to ISIS, which had claimed the responsibility of the cafe attack.

Media reports quoting a police officer said during initial investigation, the suspects confessed to smuggling weapons and explosives across the Indian border near Bangladesh’s northwestern Chapainawabganj district.

In August, police killed the mastermind of the country’s worst terror attack on July 1 at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka that killed 22 people. An Indian girl was among 17 foreigners killed in the attack.

ISIS had claimed responsibility for the cafe attack but police believe that neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh was involved in organising the attack.